Bushing for drums



May 1937. c. E. FARRINGTON 2,079,991

BUSHING FOR DRUMS Filed June 1, 1955 CHARLES E. FARRINGTON Patented May 11, 1937 UNITED STAES BUSHING FOR DRUMS Charles E. Farrington, Phoenixville, Pa.

Application June 1, 1935, Serial No. 24,485

4 Claims. (01. 285-50) This invention relates to agitator drums and standard drum for the reception of a stirrer bar more particularly to a method and means for without involving the necessity of removing the equipping ordinary drums with agitator devices said head from the drum body nor the necessity for effectively stirring and mixing the contents of employing any relatively expensive or coma of the drums so equipped. plicated tools or equipment.

Agitator-equipped drums for transporting A further object of the invention is the propaints and other such liquid or semi-liquid comvision of members which are so operatively repounds are now well-known in the art and are lated to each other as to permit their ready sequite generally employed. Such drums are discurernent to the drum head of a standard drum it} closed in my own prior Patents No. 1,336,830, in such manner as to provide a hung hole asgranted April 13, 1920, and No. 1,970,367, granted sembly in the said drumhead through which a August 4, 1934:, from which it will be observed stirrer bar may be inserted for operative dispothat the upper and lower heads thereof are resition within the drum, as well as to the side spectively adapted to receive and maintain in wall of the drum adjacent the bottom thereof to proper operating position therebetween an agiprovide a faucet opening, the said parts being of tating device in the form of a stirrer bar of suitsuch order that they may be operatively asable design. It will be appreciated, of course, sembled either upon the drumhead or upon the that the most expensive element of the agitatorside wall of the drum without necessitating the equipped drum is the drum itself, the cost of removal of either drumhead from the drum body -30 which to produce is quite a considerable item. and without requiring any alteration or modifi- These drums, which are generally of a 55-gallon cation thereof other than to provide in the upper capacity, are usually constructed entirely of sheet head and side wall of the drumholes or apertures metal of sufficiently heavy gauge to adequately of requisite diameter. withstand the pressure of the contents thereof. Other objects of the invention and advantages Moreover, the top and bottom drumheads are resulting therefrom, as well as economies effected 25 welded or otherwise so permanently secured to thereby, will be apparent more fully hereinafter, the side walls thereof that it is the general pracit being understood that the invention consists tice to prepare the drumheads for proper recepsubstantially in the combination, construction, tion of the agitating device preliminarily and location and relative arrangement of parts, as

.50 prior to the operation of securing the drumheads well as in the method of assembling the same, in position. all as is more fully described hereinafter, as is I have found that there is available in the open shown in the accompanying drawing, and as is market an exceedingly large number of secondfinally pointed out in the appended claims. hand or used ordinary drums which have never In the accompanying drawing, which il1us-.

been provided with agitator devices but which trates and exemplifies a preferred embodiment 35 are nevertheless well adapted to be reconditioned of the present invention:-- to accommodate agitators of the type disclosed Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view of a standin my prior patents aforesaid. When so reconard drum reconditioned in accordance with the ditioned and equipped with agitators, these present invention;

drums serve admirably as transport containers Figure 2 is an enlarged diametrical sectional 40 for paints and other liquid and semi-liquid comview of the bunghole assembly as installed in the pounds. When it is realized that these used upper head of the reconditioned drum;

TEN? OFFIE drums may be purchased at a cost so far less than Figure 3 is a plan view of one of the members that of a new drum that even when reconditioned of the bunghole; to include agitator devices, the total cost of each Figure 4 is a view showing the manner of pro- 45 reconditioned drum is materially less than the jecting the said member through the apertured cost of producing a completely new agitatordrumhead into operative position; equipped drum, it will be evident that a consid- Figure 5 is a view showing the several parts of erable saving is effected without any decrease in the bunghole fitting in the process of being operthe efficiency of operation of the reconditioned atively assembled upon the apertured drumhead; 50

drum. To effect this saving is one of the prinand cipal objects of the present invention. Figure 6 is a view showing the several parts Among the further objects of the present inof the bunghole fitting completely assembled vention is to provide an exceedingly simple and and with the assembling tool still in position. effective method of adapting the upper head of a Referring now more particularly to the drawing, it will be observed that the present invention contemplates the reconditioning of a standard type drum ID to accommodate within the interior thereof an agitating device, preferably of the type designated by the reference numeral H. The drum which is so adapted to be reconditioned is of the more or less conventional type having the opposed upper and lower drumheads l2 and l2a which are welded or otherwise permanently secured to the side walls (217 of the drum. These drums are of the type such as are generally employed for transporting oil and other liquid or semi-liquid compounds and are usually characterized in that they are provided with a bunghole located in the side wall of the drum or in one or the other of the drumheads adjacent the peripheral mar-gin thereof. In order to operatively accommodate an agitating device in the form of a stirrer bar, like that designated by the numeral l I in Figure 1, within the interior of the drum, it is, of course necessary to provide coaxial bearings in the opposed drumheads I2 and Ho of the drum for respectively receiving the opposite extremities of the stirrer bar which is designed for rotation about the common vertical axis of the vertically spaced bearings.

To this end, the upper head l2 .of the drum is centrally cut out to provide an opening [3 therein of a diameter sufficient to permit the agitating device II to be freely projected therethrough into the interior of the drum. This agitating device H, which may be of any desired form, is, in the present exemplification of the invention, in the form of a relatively thin elongated fiat bar or blade the central portion M of which is radially offset from the coaxially opposed extremities I5 and I6 thereof. The upper extremity l5 of the stirrer bar is arranged for vertical projection through the opening I3 of the upper drumhead I l of the drum, while the lower extremity i6 thereof is adapted to be pivotally anchored upon a pivot pin or stud I! secured to the bottom i2a of the drum in vertical alignment with the central axis of the opening 13. The centrally offset portion 14 of the stirrer bar is twisted upon itself to facilitate the stirring and mixing of the compound contained within the drum when the stirrer bar is rotated about its vertical axis of rotation. In order to effect this rotation of the stirrer bar the upper extremity thereof is adapted to be engaged by an operating handle (not shown) of the types more particularly disclosed in my prior patents aforesaid, it being a characteristic feature of these handles that the blade engaging portion thereof is adapted to be journaled within the bung hole fitting, the several parts of which are operatively assembled together and secured to the marginal edge of the opening IS in the manner and by the means now to be described.

As appears most clearly in Figures 2 to 6, inclusive, this bunghole assembly essentially comprises a crescent-shaped split ring member l8, a bushing l9 and a bunghole cap or closure member 20. The crescent-shaped member i8 is in reality in the form of a disk of substantial thickness in which is provided an interiorly threaded opening 2| located eccentrically with respect to the central axis of the disk. The marginal wall of the opening 2! is split, as at 22, at the point of its smallest radial dimension, the separation between the terminal extremities 23-24 of the split ring being merely sumcient to permit the portion of the drumhead 12 which marginally surrounds the central opening l3 therein to be accommodated between the said terminal extremities 23-24 when the ring I8 is manipulated into the position shown in Figure 4.

It will further be observed, as appears most clearly in Figures 3 and 4-, that the split ring member E8 is of maximum radial dimension at the point substantially diametrically opposite the free terminal extremities 23-24 thereof. The bushing it! is provided with a depending annular flange 25 which is exteriorly threaded, as at 26, and in addition is provided with a radially extending flange 21. The central opening of the bushing is interiorly threaded, as at 28, to threadedly receive the bunghole cap or closure member. As appears most clearly in Figure 2, the bushing 19 is adapted to be threadedly connected to the split ring member 18 in such manner as to clampingly engage the marginal edge of the central opening [3 in the drumhead between the upper face of the member 18 and the lower face of the radial flange 27 of the bushing. In order to accomplish this, the split ring member i8 must, of course, be positioned beneath the drumhead II in such manner that the interiorly threaded opening 2| thereof is in coaxial registry with the cen tral opening 53 in the drumhead. This is effectcd by the use of a tool 29 of the type shown in Figures 5 and 6 and which is in the form of a spring steel strap doubled upon itself to provide a pair of branches 3t and 3| the lower ends of which are respectively provided with outwardly iturned terminal extremities 32 and 33. Due to the inherent resiliency of the material of which the tool 29 is formed, the branches 30-3! thereof tend constantly to spring away from each other into the full-line position shown in Figures 5 and 6.

To assemble the split ring member 18 and the bushing l9 securely together in the relation shown in Figure 2, the split ring I3 is first threaded through the central opening l3 of the drumhead I 2, this being accomplished most expeditiously by initially inserting one of the terminal extremities 23-24 thereof into the said opening l3 and then rotating the split ring member IS in such manner as to locate the said member entirely beneath the drum head I2. The tool 29 is then also inserted through the opening 13 in the drum as well as through the interiorly threaded opening 2| of the split ring, this being accomplished by pressing the branches 30-31 of the tool together sufficiently to permit the terminal extremities 32-33 to pass freely through the said registering openings 13 and 2|. Upon releasing the branches 38-3! they spring apart sufiiciently to cause the terminal extremities 32-33 thereof to underlie and engage diametrically opposed portions of the under surface of the split ring is in such manner that as the tool 29 is drawn upwardly, the split ring 18 is held firmly against the bottom surface of the drumhead l2 with the O threaded opening 2! of the member l8 in axial alignment with the central opening l3 of the drumhead.

While the tool so engages and retains the split ring E8 in position, the bushing i9 is slipped over the tool 29 (see Figure 5) and downwardly thereof for threaded engagement with the split ring I 8, it being apparent that as the bushing is threadedly secured to the split ring, the arms 39-3l of the tool 29 are gradually compressed inwardly and toward each other into the dotted line position shown in Figure 5. When the bushing I9 is threadedly secured to the split ring member l8 sufficiently to provide a finger-tight hold between these parts, the placer tool 29 is removed,

following which a wrench may be applied to the bushing l9 to effect a leak-tight threaded connection between the members 18 and I9. Preferably, gaskets 30a and 301) are respectively disposed upon opposite sides of the drum head 12 to insure an absolutely leak-tight connection between the threadedly connected members I8 and I9. Due to the particular shape and construction of the split ring member l8, including as it does a zone of maximum strength in the portion thereof which is diametrically opposite to the free extremities 2324 thereof, it will be evident that very considerable power may be applied to the bushing IS in effecting the leak-tight connection without incurring any danger of cracking or otherwise weakening the split ring member, this being due to the fact that the point of greatest strain in this latter member has been subsantially reinforced.

With the parts l8, l9 and 300, secured together and to the drum head l2 in the manner just described, it will be apparent that the drum I0 is as fully and completely adapted for reception of an agitating device as though it had been originally specially designed and constructed to receive the latter. Not only is a very considerable saving effected due to the saving in cost of the drum itself but there is also effected a considerable saving in the cost of equipping the upper head of the drum with the bung hole assembly due to the fact that the several parts of this assembly are mechanically assembled and secured together by the use of simple and inexpensive tools.

As will he obviously appreciated, the bunghole fitting or assembly of the present invention may vary structurally to adapt it to different types of stirrer bars and operating handles therefor. Thus, the bushing member H], which in each instance is designed for threaded engagement with the split ring member l8 in such manner that the said members I8 and I9 clampingly engage opposite faces of the drumhead I2, may be designed to removably carry a stirrer bar supporting pin of the type disclosed in my pending application Serial No. 663,739, filed March 31, 1.933. Inasmuch as this supporting pin forms no part of the present invention, it is deemed unnecessary to describe it in detail herein, it being mentioned merely to illustrate the adaptability of the present invention to various arrangements and styles of agitator-equipped drums.

The bunghole assembly as hereinbefore described is, of course, not limited in its application to the drumhead alone, but instead may be employed in any other part of the drum to provide therein an interiorly threaded opening for receiving any desired type of fitting. For example, the assembly of the present invention may be provided in the side Wall of the drum adjacent the bottom thereof, as at 34, for the reception of a faucet (not shown) through which the contents of the drum may be removed.

It will be understood, of course, that the invention is susceptible of various changes and modifications which may be made from time to time without departing from the real spirit or general principles thereof and it is accordingly intended to claim the same broadly, as well as specifically, as indicated in the appended claims.

What is claimed as new and useful is:

1. In a reconditioned drum of the character described, having a perforation in a wall thereof, an interiorly threaded split annulus adapted to be manipulated into flatwise engagement with the inner surface of said perforated wall, and an exteriorly threaded bushing engageable with said annulus and having a radial flange adapted to overlie the outer surface of said drum marginally surrounding said perforation, said flange coacting with said annulus to clamp therebetween the portion of the drum wall marginally surrounding the perforation therein.

2. In a reconditioned drum of the character described, in combination, a drum having a perforation in one of the Walls thereof, an eccentrically apertured disk disposed fiatwise against the inner surface of said wall with the aperture thereof in registry with the perforation in said drum wall, the aperture in said disk being interiorly threaded for threadediy receiving a flanged bushing and the marginal wall of said aperture being split approximately at the point of its least radial dimension to permit free insertion of the disk through the drum perforation without requiring the diameter of the disk aperture to be less than that I of the drum perforation, and a flanged bushing threadedly engaging said disk whereby to clamp the portion of the drum wall marginally surrounding the perforation therein between the bushing flange and the apertured disk.

3. In a reconditioned drum of the character described, in combination, a drum having a perforation in one of the walls thereof, an eccentrlcal ly apertured disk the marginal wall of Which is split approximately at the point of its least radial dimension to provide a pair of terminal ex-, tremities spaced apart sufficiently to permit the disk to he slipped through said perforation into a position overlying the inner surface of said perforated wall, the diameter of the disk aperture being approximately the same as and the overall diameter of said disk being considerably greater than the diameter of said perforation, and a bushing directly engaging said disk to clamp therebetween the portion of the drum wall marginally surrounding the perforation therein.

4. In a drum of the character defined in claim 3 wherein the aperture in said disk is interiorly threaded and wherein the bushing is exteriorly threaded for threaded reception within said aperture.

CHARLES E. FARRINGTON. 

